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Irish Immigration Essay, Research Paper

Irish Immigration

Throughout time people have moved and migrated around the world for many different reasons. Immigration, throughout history, has become a key factor in the diffusion of culture in both the United States as well as the rest of the world. Immigration is defined as the transfer of a foreigner from one country to another to settle there. Many ethnic groups have migrated in attempts to better their positions and run from ethnic troubles, such as poverty, high unemployment, famine, disease, starvation, religious reasons and political troubles (Coffey). Immigration, on a world scale, reached a peak in the 19th and 20th centuries.

For decades, the Irish and other ethnic groups had fled their countries, which they had called home, to America in search of better opportunities and conditions to build better lives for themselves and their families. The first great influx of immigrants to the United States began in the early 19th century, when large numbers of Europeans left their homelands to escape the economic distress and the political distress in their native countries (Fallows). These were the many causes for the immigration of the Irish to the United States. ?For the Irish many of their problems began in the 1180’s, when the King of England decided that the British needed more land. This need was created due to England having a small amount of land and the practice of ?primogeniture.? This term meant that all family land inheritances went to the eldest son. In an attempt to solve this land problem, the Pope gave Ireland to England so there was more land for the British to settle?(Guinnane). In the 1600’s, the English began to live in Ireland and they then began to introduce a policy of forced assimilation. In enforcing this policy, they tried to eliminate the use of Gaelic, the Irish language, abolish the Catholic religion, and also eliminate the social and political equality among men and women.

The British also introduced and instituted penal laws, which denied the Irish population freedom. Irish men and women began to bravely fight the British to protect their land. However, their fighting wasn?t enough to stop them. At this point Irish tenant farmers found themselves faced with eviction for nonpayment of rent. The English landlords continuously raised their rent until the Irish farmers could no longer pay in order that they would be evicted. This gave the landlords larger areas of land to raise cattle and sheep for exportation to England. This happened first in the middle of the Ireland where the land was most fertile. These tenant evictions were a cause of emigration from Ireland. The British also ruined Irish families? houses by either tearing down the roof or by burning them down to the ground. The Irish, having lost their homes, moved to the rocky coastline where only few patches of land were farmable (Guinnane). This created ?an irregular division of land ownership? in which a new way of indicating personal property was created (Ignatiev). Irish farmers now used stone fences to mark their property, and each fence had a distinct design or pattern clearly labeling ownership. The farmer?s land was also not adjacent which made farming difficult. Some who were not fortunate enough to find land became ?tinkers.? ? Tinkers is a term given to the people who wandered around looking for food or work. They usually lived in tents along the side of the road and asked people for food in return for performing small tasks?(Guinnane). The British, now having most the land in Ireland, exported cattle to England to serve as a source of food. Therefore the Irish, who used to eat chicken and beef with spices, now were forced to become dependent on potatoes to survive. Then in 1848, the a potato blight struck the farmlands of Ireland and became known as the greatest tragedy in Ireland?s history occurred called the ?Great Potato Famine.? Many of these people, due to the famine, were forced to resort to the desperate practice known as ?bleeding.? Bleeding was draining some of the cow?s blood and mixing it with rotten potatoes and cabbage into a soup (Guinnane). This was used to help families combat the famine by keeping their strength up. ? The famine did make some of the English sympathetic to the plight, but the situation was too tragic that many suffering began to migrate to America. Some families sent their suffering children or the head of their household to get employment, in order to send the earnings back for the rest of the family?(Coffey).

The Great Potato Famine became one of the major causes of the Irish influx to the United States in the mid to late 19th century. ?Over one hundred and fifty years ago, a potato famine struck the farmlands of Ireland and the results are evident in the numbers of Irish descendants scattered around the globe?(Coffey). This potato blight was the most devastating Irish famine in history. ?The Great Famine,? ?The Great Hunger,? and also known as ?The Great Starvation? were known as Ireland?s holocaust which condemned the Irish to be the first boat people of modern Europe?(Fallows). The time of the famine was a period in Ireland?s history, which most Irish would like to forget. The destructive famine struck from 1845 through 1850. During this time over one million of the eight million people who lived in Ireland died from ?famine fever?-a 19th century pseudonym for the death by starvation (Coffey). The famine left people powerless and many Irishmen had no choice but to flee their native land. People had no control of their own lives or fate, and the British control over Ireland also left them powerless and without options or choices.

Throughout the time that most of the majority of the Irish population migrated to the United States, America was faced with its own internal problems. At this time, our country was faced with the Civil War and its resultant

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